Staff Training - Peace Child Israel - July and August 2007

The Summer “After”

Peace Child Israel staff training last year took place at the height of Second Lebanon War.

Between March and May 2007, Peace Child Israel interviewed over　30 candidates for facilitation among nearly 100 who applied.　 There were many more Jewish candidates than Arabs, which may reflect not only the population ratio in the country, but also the current state of affairs and the deterioration in the Arab-Jewish relations in Israel (that "untold story" to which I often allude).　

July 29^th thru 31^st

Training each year takes place in two stages:

1) Stage I - Curriculum and methodology acquaintance for new candidates　

　Held this year for 10 candidates between July 29th and 31st at the Nachsholim kibbutz, near Haifa

Khawla Dipse (pedagogical director), Melisse Boskovich (managing director)　and Khalil Sbeit (psychologist and supervisor) were the　facilitators

Four sessions for Arabs or Jews alone and four joint-session units of the curriculum were covered and one theoretical session was also included.

Day I: Learning the Curriculum Doing: Separate Ethnicity Sessions

Day II: Learning the Curriculum By Doing: Joint Ethnicity (family album; scripts (classic & modern))

Group Contract

Warm-ups with Comic Relief – Last Session Day II

Weddings and Masks

Day III: Theory, Methodology and Closure

In October, after Ramadan, a session has been scheduled for new and veteran staff members to participate in a full-day training to faciliate each other on sessions newly entered into the curriculum.

2) Stage II - Co-facilitation, group process and changes/additions to the program　

(to be held August 5th thru 10th at the Ziporri Conference Center, near Jerusalem)

　Training Parallel to Teachers' Course

This year, Peace Child Israel developed a 56-hour course for teachers (from schools where the youth program is implemented), in conjunction with the Ministry of Education.　 It is a course of 14 units, which begins with the personal narratives, transforms to the narrative in a dramatic context and concludes with creating a presentation from the material that presents itself during the course.It was decided to use this new model as a "pilot" with the staff in the training program, but to add the practical/theoretic needs for preparation.

　Two facilitators from the Northern District of the Ministry of Education will　begin with 20 hours of work using narratives Sunday　August 5th 　and Monday. Hanan Snir, renowned director　at the Habimah Theatre and psychodramatist will continue on Monday evening, creating monologues.　 He will conclude his portion in Tuesday evening.　 On Wednesday, Khalil Sbeit (psychologist and bi-national group facilitator expert) will work with the group on theoretical and practical units regarding facilitation and co-facilitation.　 (Messrs. Sbeit and Snir will provide professional supervision for pairs of co-facilitators during the coming activity year).

　The last two days of Stage II will be devoted to learning and experiencing the newly developed 2^nd year curriculum for the "graduate" program participants.　 The Year II process is designed to conclude with a new script, based on improvisations, while teens simultaneously perform their first play in schools on a monthly basis. Khawla Dipse, will co-facilitate the last 2 days with Melisse Lewine-Boskovich, the organization's director.

“Its not easy for Arabs and Jews to sit in the same room”, is heard on the voice-over of the film prepared for Peace Child Israel’s 18^th anniversary and opening the website. It remains true at 20. Everyone – the teens who volunteer for the project and the staff willing to facilitate it- are to be saluted.